PG Music has released a new beta version of Band-in-a-Box 2008.5 (Build 260 Beta Update).

Summary of Changes for Build 260 (May 21, 2008):

• Fixed: Audio_Stretched.WAV file was getting written during render.
• Fixed: RealDrums were making a brief sound during rests.
• Improved: Limit for unique styles in stylepicker increased from 5,000 to 8,000 (PG Music has made about 3,000 styles).
• Fixed: Was not switching from 'a' substyle to 'b' substyle in RealBass fast enough on new choruses.
• Added: Clear ALL button added to the RealTracks Assign dialog, which removes all RealTracks assignments.
• Added: On first time bootup (first 2 bootups) , offer is made to Archive WAV files, if program resides on C:\ drive and 'RPS001.WAV' exists in RealTracks folder.
• Added: Archive function in RealTracks and RealDrums dialogs offers to archive the other folder as well.
• Updated: More info added to StylePicker, RealTracks styles.

Summary of Changes for Build 259 (May 16, 2008):

• Improved: Faster Generation of RealTracks. The time it takes to generate the RealTracks is now 3X faster.
• Improved: "Waveless" Much smaller size, only uses 1/8 of the hard drive space compared to previous! RealTracks and RealDrums no longer need WAV files - they can use WMA natively. This frees up huge amounts of your hard drive, so that the RealDrums and RealTracks take up only 1 /8 of the space that they used to take! Handy "Archive" function will remove the no-longer-needed WAV files with a single-click. Since you can free up hard drive space previously occupied by RealDrums and RealTracks WAV files, many users will find that the new version uses up much less hard drive space than previous versions.
• Improved: Tempo stretching quality much improved. Now the RealTracks sound great over a much wider tempo range, typically -15 and +40 beats per minute.
• New: Stereo panning available for the Realtracks. Previous version was mono.
• New: Automatic prevention of audio clipping (new Float mixing and PeakLimiter added).
• New: RealStyles available - these are styles that all "Real", with no MIDI. Up to 7 RealInstruments at once in a single style.
• Improved: Improved transitions for RealTracks (Pops/Clicks removed).
• New: Right click menu available for each part in BB (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), allowing you to quickly assign a RealTracks, (or RealDrums) to that part, and other functions like mute, solo, save single track, etc.
• New: RealTracks browser dialog, showing comprehensive information about the RealTracks, including name, genre, feel, tempo, type, demos, and preview. Lists can be sorted or filtered by any column.
• New: Easily save a style (.STY) with RealTracks, directly from the main screen ("save what you hear" as a style).
• Improved: RealTracks work for Rests and Shots.
• Improved: Endings are now present in RealTracks.
• New: Name of Realtracks or RealDrums displayed for each part at top of screen.
• New: Right click on a part to save that single track to disk as a WAV file.
• New: RealTracks demos now present in RealTracks - demos folder, and can be opened from the stylePicker.
• New: Real Tracks Preview function to hear how RealTracks will sound, without losing your current song.
• New: Ability to time shift a RealTracks by certain amount, to achieve more laid-back playing for example.
• Added: Variations of RealTracks can be made, for things like a simpler type of soloing, or certain variations.
• Added: RealTracks can have multiple substyles. For example, the Jazz Acoustic Bass plays '2' feel in 'a' substyle, and '4' in 'b' section.
• Added: Soloists can solo over different chords than the chords of the song. For example, the Metal Guitar Soloist can have a tonal center controlled by the user, different than the song chords. So that the Metal Guitar can be soloing over a G chord, while the chords of the song are G F G Bb for example.
• Added: "Crescendo" Soloing can be generated for some RealTracks, that has the intensity of the solo building up with flashiest part of the solos played as the solo builds.
• Improved: Musicality of the solo phrasing improved, phrasing much closer to human.
• Improved: Real Tracks button added to Soloist dialog, with color coding to allow quick access to RealTracks.
• Improved: RealTracks folders now have descriptive names. Instead of cryptic names like RacG001, they have names like "Guitar, Electric, Soloist Cowboy Ev 165".
• Improved: Bass track can now play RealTracks.
• Improved: StyleMaker lists RealTracks names on main screen.
• Improved: Non English versions will work with newest RealTracks without a new translation of Soloist list (Default.SOL file).
• New: Archive and Install WAV buttons, to control use of WAV files for RealDrums and RealTracks. WAV files are no longer needed, as the program can use the much smaller WMA files. But if you prefer to use WAV files (slightly higher fidelity and slightly faster operation), you can install or archive them on a global or folder by folder basis with these commands.
• Added: Tempo stretching custom methods added to Audio menu (for Audio track), to allow your own audio tracks to tempo stretch with high quality.
• Improved: Many messages that used to require user input (pressing OK) have now been changed to Flash Messages that display on screen for a certain period of time, not requiring any user action.
• Improved: Fadeouts on songs longer than 255 bars.
• Improved: Audio track now renders to WAV file at user specified tempo.
• Improved: Multibar RealDrums patterns were sometimes split when it wasn't necessary/appropriate to do that.

Summary of Changes for Build 257 (January 17, 2008):

• Added: .MGU file sizes are not so large when F5 volume changes are added to your song.
• Added: Build number now saved with the song, starting with build 257.
• Added: Prefs-Overrides now has a section for song defaults, which allows selecting default for Allow Embellishments and Vary Style in Middle Choruses. 'Jazz' and 'Pop/Country' buttons are available to set these.
• Fixed: When you DXi-Direct Rendered to wave a song with RealDrums and/or RealTracks, with 'One WAV file per track' checked, and 'Include Lead-in Bars' unchecked, the RealDrums and RealTracks wave files still included the lead-in bars.
• Fixed: MultiStyles - A song that started with substyle C or D would only play with the correct substyle in the 2nd and 3rd choruses if the first chorus ended with substyle A or B.
• Improved: When DXi-Direct Rendering with 'One WAV file per track' checked, if your song has RealDrums, you no longer get a second (empty) Render_Drums wave file.
• Fixed: If you muted all of the tracks except for RealTracks and DXi-Direct Render (one wave file per track unchecked), the rendered wave file was empty.
• Fixed: Small typo in the RealDrums tool tip.
• Fixed: The flash message tip - "No notation will show up because it is a RealTrack" is no longer displayed for any notation track that has no notes in it.
• Fixed: If the only change you make to a file is recording a melody (and keeping take), the program didn't prompt you with the 'song has changed, save it' dialog.
• Fixed: 'What add-ons do I have' incorrectly reported that you have Styles39 installed if you have Styles38 (but not 39).
• Added: Practice Window now looks for programs on other drives than C:\
• Fixed: If you had a long intro without part markers, Band-in-a-Box was sometimes unable to pick a RealDrums pattern when it should be able to.
• Fixed: With 'Snap to Gridlines' disabled in the Notation Window Options dialog, the notes still snapped to the gridlines.
• Fixed: In the Practice Window, when a program shows as N/A because you haven't installed it to the default location, you will now be prompted to locate the file.
• Fixed: The Practice Window sometimes wasn't finding the Video Guitar Lessons.

Summary of Changes for Build 256 (January 2, 2008):

• Fixed: Multistyle wasn't changing in certain combinations (c/d going to a/b in a new chorus).
• Fixed: RealDrums sometimes played out of sync when there were time signature changes in a song.
• Improved: RealTracks "tempo stretching" has been improved (RealTracks quality at tempos different than the base tempo). Note: for this feature, the bt0 files in Realtracks directory must be 12/30/07 or newer. The patch will install newer bt0 files to your RealTracks folder.